"Sir?" - First lesson!

"Sir!" - First lesson experience

I think it's going to take a lot longer than 1 week to get used to students, only a few years younger, refering to me a sir. Who knows though, maybe I'll become more accustomed to the title as the weeks go on!

It really wasn't long at all till I took the centre stage of the classropm; Delasi, the teacher I'm co-teaching with, threw me straight into the deep end on the start of the third day of having 'teacher status'. I was to teach form 3A, the highest ability kids in their third of 4 years  in secondary school. After observing him in the morning with the 3B class (mid ability, with C the lowest), I was impressed by his clear explainations and structure to his lesson; it was concise and equiquent, but it was hard to judge how many of the students were going along with what he was saying or simply agreeing. Nevertheless, the quality and pace seemed relatively good compared to the U.K public education system. 

So after a brief introduction, I was left to lead around 40/45 students through the topics of relations and functions, one which was totally new to them. Despite apprehension at first, I was extremely pleased with how the lesson went. After an introduction of the topics and definitions, I got them involed in coming to the board and helping with the exercise, a different and (hopefully) more engaging way than simply letting them just do questions in their book independently. They seemed to grasp the topic and, despite some confusion (and irony!), managed to just about understand what I meant by "thumbs up if you understand it, thumbs in the middle if you understand most and thumbs don't if it makes little sense".  To finish, we played a noughts and crosses style game, boys versues girls, using the topic they'd learnt that day and also their basics maths skills. Again, it'll take time for them to develop the tactics, but nevertheless it got the learners from quiet and reserved to a halfway posture between standing and sitting with their hand at full stretch in the air, frantically moving from side to side. Delasi chose to watch the lesson, he seemed amused and intrigued at my teaching style and even insisted for me to take his 3B class later in the afternoon! 

Afterwards, I walked into the staffroom (well, one regular sized classroom with about 6 desks which a number of teachers choose to conregate around), buzzed and thrilled  from the energy of the lesson and got back down to planning for the next one! 

It was a thrilling feeling, one which I'll hope to replicate in all of the lessons I teach over this 6 weeks. 

J